The Name Inspector inspects the name Skype

For all ye namers out there, there's an excellent blog that goes by the moniker The Name Inspector. This guy really digs into the origin of names, as in this post about Skype. Other excellent posts include this one and this one regarding the ten name types.

Technorati Tags: naming, blogs, branding, skype

The Naming Process - HARD

Nancy at Away With Words has a great post regarding the New York Times' article In a Global Marketplace, Claiming a Name Becomes an Art in Itself. And leave it to a namer to come up with an excellent title to her blog post: It's Hard Out Here for a Namer. Now, I can't get the song It's Hard Out Here for a Pimp out of my mind.

Technorati Tags: naming, branding, trademark, It's Hard Out Here for a Pimp, Hustle & Flow

Creating Brand Names

Chris Brown over at Branding & Marketing links to five naming tutorials and also to The Best Brands of the World (woorrlld, I say in Keith Olbermann fashion). Of course, make sure you clear your perfect brand name prior to making a substantial investment in its use.

Technorati Tags: branding, naming, trademark search, clearance

Future brand squatting

I recently took an online survey from a branding company asking my opinion about a series of potential brands for the branding company's client's new product. Ever the inquisitive sort, I checked the PTO website to see if any of these marks have been submitted for registration. A sampling of the few distinctive names in the list revealed that they were not submitted.

That's when my evil mind and overactive imagination kicked in. What if someone who took the survey proceeded to submit intent to use applications of the names found in the survey? That's probably not likely because of the expense involved. The survey I took had close to 30 potential brand names. But, they could get the domain names if available. Those are relatively cheap.

I recall that before I took the survey I had to agree to keeping the potential names confidential. Unfortunately, I didn't think about printing the confidentiality language and the system would not let me navigate backwards.

Suggestions to naming and branding companies that conduct online surveys:

• Make sure your confidentiality agreements also require the survey takers to not use the potential brands as their own trademark or in domain names
• Make sure your system captures the name and other identifying information of the individuals taking the survey
• Retain the survey taker's electronic assent to the confidentiality agreement
• Make sure competitors are not taking the survey
• Consider grabbing the domain names, if available
• Consider having your client apply for intent to use applications with the PTO on some of the potential brand names [HEY NOW, trademark attorneys have to eat too : )]

I'm sure there's more, but that's just what came to mind initially.

Technorati Tags: naming, survey, confidentiality agreement, squatting

Martin + Oso Name Analysis

Away With Words has an excellent post analyzing the story behind American Eagle Outfitter's new store concept Martin + Osa.

From a being nosy (aka competitive intelligence) prespective, it's interesting that AE subsidiary Retail Licensing Company is the owner of the trademark, but American Eagle Outfitter owns the various AE marks.

Technorati Tags: branding, naming, trademark, competitive intelligence

Branding Diseases

Checkout this CBS Sunday Morning piece regarding one piece of the Brand Institute's business, which makes up 20% of its overall business, of coming up with new names for diseases. And the client that's paying to re-name diseases? The drug companies. The key, according to the Brand Institute's President, is making up a name that describe the symptoms in a nice way ... making it okay to seek help preferably with the client's drugs. According to CBS, it works. For every $1 spent in advertisements, the drug companies make $4.

Technorati Tags: branding, naming, diseases, drug companies, advertising

The Name Game - tmbc style

Anantha over at Brandnama has a nice post re: naming the first brand you can think of for each letter of the alphabet. So here goes my attempt:

Apple
Bic
Cunard
Dell
Entenmann's
Frank Gates
Go Daddy
Heineken
IBM
Jantzen
Kellog
Linux
Minute Maid
Novell
Overstock.com
People Magazine
Qubo
Rice-a-Roni
Samsonite
Tim Hortons
Unilever
Valvoline
Wolverines (as in the University of Michigan Wolverines)
Xerox
Yatzee
Zillow.com

Y stumped me for a while. I don't know why I didn't choose Yahoo!

Update: Q also stumped me. The first thing I could think of was Qube, which for folks living in Columbus Ohio, was a Time Warner experiment for an interactive cable system. Since it no longer exists, I decided not to list it. What I finally thought of is Qubo. My daughter watches the channel on Saturday mornings. And talks about it alot. That's why I thought of it.

Technorati Tags: branding, name game, naming, brands, alphabet